Deck 10: Rigor and Validity in Quantitative Research

Question 1

How do nurse researchers strive for constancy of conditions in implementing a treatment?

A) Having standard written research protocols
B) Using a randomized block design
C) Maximizing the internal validity of thestudy
D) Avoiding contamination of treatments

Answer 1

Having standard written research protocols

Question 2

What is the implication of using the principle of homogeneity to control for extraneous variables?

A) Statistical conclusion validity
B) Generalizability of the findings
C) Contamination of treatments
D) Precision of the design

Answer 2

Generalizability of the findings

Question 3

What is the most effective method of controlling extraneous variables?

A) Analysis of covariance
B) Matching
C) Randomization
D) Homogeneity

Answer 3

Randomization

Question 4

Which research design do subjects serve as their own controls?

A) Factorial
B) Randomized block
C) Crossover
D) Balanced

Question 5

The nurse researcher must know in advance the extraneous variables that are to be controlled for which procedure?

A) Matching
B) Randomized groups
C) Factorial design
D) Crossover design

Question 6

Which is a method of statistical control?

A) On-protocol analysis
B) Analysis of covariance
C) Pair matching
D) Counterbalancing

Question 7

What is the threat of internal validity that occurs when external events or conditions affect one group more than another?

A) Maturation
B) Selection
C) Testing
D) History

Question 8

When is a study internally valid?

A) Alternative explanations of the results can be ruled out.
B) An experimental design was used.
C) A repeated measures design was used.
D) Precision has been maximized.

Question 9

There are four types of validity that affect the rigor of a quantitative study. What concerns the validity of inferences that there is an empirical relationship between variables?

A) Statistical conclusion validity
B) Internal validity
C) Construct validity
D) External validity

Question 10

There are four types of validity that affect the rigor of a quantitative study. What concerns inferences from the particular exemplars of a study to the higher-order constructs that they are intended to represent?

A) Statistical conclusion validity
B) Internal validity
C) Construct validity
D) External validity

Question 11

What is a threat to statistical conclusion validity?

A) Ability to detect true relationships among variables.
B) Exactness of the relationships identified before controlling confound variables.
C) Undermining a strong operationalization of the dependent variable.
D) High precision of relationships revealed among relationships in variables.

Question 12

Which technique is helpful in maintaining treatment fidelity in an exercise plan for clients with joint replacement?

A) Providing a detailed training manual that illustrates the exercises
B) Writing a plan that allows for variation indoing the prescribed exercises
C) Asking the participants if they liked doing the exercises
D) Allowing staff nurses to monitor calendars used to document adherence to the exercises

Question 13

Which is a characteristic of a method to enhance statistical power?

A) Small sample size
B) Definition of the dependent variable
C) Increased variability of the extraneous variables
D) Precise measuring tool

Question 14

Qualitative description is often a powerful means of enhancing this type of validity of settings?

A) Statistical conclusion validity
B) Internal validity
C) Construct validity
D) External validity

Question 15

What threat is reduced by obtaining contact information?

A) Selection
B) Maturation
C) Mortality
D) Instrumentation

Question 16

What threat is a one group pretest-posttest design especially susceptible to?

A) Testing
B) Selection
C) Maturation
D) History

Question 17

What effect can occur when subjects' behaviors are affected not by the treatment per se, but by their knowledge of participating in a study and the generalizability of the results is limited?

A) Experimenter
B) Hawthorne
C) Measurement
D) Novelty